Shamik Chakrabarty in Guwahati
Question: Did the ACA Stadium pitch here in Guwahati change drastically on the third day for the Indian batting to implode?
Answer: No. On this surface, Kuldeep Yadav, batting at No. 9, played 134 deliveries and added 72 runs for the ninth wicket with Washington Sundar. That was India’s only rearguard in an otherwise forgettable batting display. Only one batsman, Yashasvi Jaiswal, went past the 50-run mark. Washington’s 48 was the second highest in a sorry scorecard.
In the first Test at Eden Gardens, on a Bunsen, Washington was the only Indian batsman to play more than 50 deliveries in both innings. He batted at No. 3 there. Here, on a good pitch in Guwahati, he was demoted to No. 8. He has batted in five different positions in his last seven Test innings. How is that for making a player insecure?
In the longest format, India have been erring in the strategic part as well as the execution part. Picking wrong team combinations, backing bits and pieces players over specialists and trying to incorporate the T20 template into Tests have been strategic errors and head coach Gautam Gambhir is responsible for it.
Nitish Kumar Reddy is a case in point. As a seam-bowling all-rounder, he bowled just six overs during South Africa’s first innings. As regards his batting, coming in at No. 7, he was bounced out by Marco Jansen on a deck that got the “road” moniker from Kuldeep after the second day’s play. Reddy probably has just one more innings to save his Test career.
Now the execution part on the field where a coach has very little role to play. Yet again, Indian batsmen were found wanting.
Take the case of Dhruv Jurel, the team’s makeshift No. 4 in Shubman Gill’s absence. Less than 10 minutes to go for the tea interval, he decided to go for a pull. Jansen had banged it short, assuming that the slowness of the pitch might induce a mistiming of the shot. Jurel played into the bowler’s hands. The ball popped up from the cue-end of the bat and Keshav Maharaj took the catch, running to his right at mid-on. The batsman perished for an 11-ball duck. He fell prey to his poor game awareness.
After the break, Rishabh Pant played arguably the worst shot of the series yet. Once again, Jansen dragged his length back, but India’s stand-in captain charged down the track in an attempt to slap the ball away. He could only manage an edge behind the stumps. The sound was heard even from the stands, but Pant decided to review. If the shot was poor, his decision to go upstairs was atrocious.
Ravindra Jadeja was done in by a well-directed bouncer – the delivery hitting the batsman’s shoulder onto the bat and then to Markram at slip. At that point, Jansen had taken four wickets for 11 runs in 25 balls in that spell. The Proteas brilliantly used the short-ball ploy to floor the hosts. India, when they were bowling, didn’t seem to have a Plan B.
Jansen went on to take a fifer, and he will take his 6/48 in these conditions as a badge of honour. Only four Indian batsmen – KL Rahul, Jaiswal, Washington and Kuldeep – can claim that they lost their wickets to good deliveries. Then again, in Test cricket, batsmen are expected to negotiate good balls.
A bit on Sai Sudharsan, who was handed back his customary No. 3 position at the expense of Washington. The manner of his dismissal was enough to question his technique and temperament at this level.
South Africa were never going to enforce the follow-on even after taking a 288-run first innings lead. At stumps on Day 3, they moved to 26 for no loss in their second innings, stretching the lead to 314. India would do wonderfully well to save the Test from here, but even that will give the Proteas their first series win in this part of the world in 25 years.
Brief scores: South Africa 489 and 26/0 vs India 201 in 83.5 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 58, Washington Sundar 48; Marco Jansen 6/48)
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